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If he DID have anything to do with this, why did he randomly drop two places in France?

My instinctive first guess would be that they sound like brand names of ladies fashion or cosmetics. Whenever I see a smalltime Japanese designer in the wild, the brand name is in French 6 times out of 10, especially if they're aiming for the Japanese market.

Unfortunately, googling does not seem to support this guess.

__________________

"The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes."
— Paul K. Feyerabend, "Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge"

Since the discussion seems to have petered out, here's a different thought to chew.

We have solid hints to think that all the sibling businesses have financial troubles, including Krauss. However, the way their troubles are described, none of them are in an immediate danger, which is supported by the timing constraints they list when proposing their agreement.

Krauss, according to Ep5, has a rolling long term plan that will eventually pull him out.

Rudolf needs more money than he has but he still has some time before he needs to pay it, and actually, he could go to court and stall the case until Kinzo's inheritance is distributed, or have a chance to actually win, stranger things have happened.

Hideyoshi, similarly, needs more money than he has, but he is only in danger if the hostile takeover campaign actually succeeds, while it depends on a lot more variables.

Rosa's loan has been apparently hanging over her for years and somehow failed to shut her down economically, there's no reason why it would immediately do so now.

But unlike the rest of the siblings, Krauss has a fatal flaw in his position that can be exploited right now -- he did commit an actual crime, that of embezzlement, and the siblings have good grounds to suspect him of other illegal activities related to Kinzo's untimely death.

So why, when Krauss tells them he is aware of their financial troubles and the reasons they need extra money, they seem to back off, at least temporarily? Krauss knowing their weak spots does not actually allow him to exploit them. All he can do is deny giving them money, but he was planning to do that anyway. His own position remains just as weakened as it was after telling them he knows.

Do they really back off, or do they always actually press on to discover Kinzo's death?

__________________

"The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes."
— Paul K. Feyerabend, "Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge"

Well, some of the siblings' descriptions come from their family meeting and may just be a front. I wonder if things are much worse than they make it out to be though, for each and every sibling. I know some people who are basically risking their necks to grow their business and they'll never tell you just how bad it really is until the repo people show up one day. (Yes, bad memories. )

And we know Eva does press on to try and see if Kinzo is dead, even when people have been found dead. Eva is definitely the spearhead of the Blackmail-Krauss conspiracy. Maybe it's not 100% to do with money? Desire for the headship for the headship's sake, perhaps?

And we know Eva does press on to try and see if Kinzo is dead, even when people have been found dead. Eva is definitely the spearhead of the Blackmail-Krauss conspiracy. Maybe it's not 100% to do with money? Desire for the headship for the headship's sake, perhaps?

The problem is Krauss' position. It does not really matter what kind of trouble Hideyoshi, Rudolf and Rosa are in. Krauss 'attacks' them, but the attack is actually a feint, he can't do anything to make their situation any worse than it is, and this attack does nothing to stop them from making his life much more miserable right now -- even if Kinzo is alive, Krauss was embezzling and a single proper kick will bring the house down.

...wait, minor eureka.

The outside phone line is out not to prevent calling police, which would do no good in the typhoon anyway. It is out to prevent the siblings from pulling the carpet out from underneath Krauss by making a phone call that would trigger a tax audit of his business while he is unable to oversee it personally, while he is trying to think of a method to prevent them from making that accusation in the future!

Really, what the police would do, teleport in?

__________________

"The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes."
— Paul K. Feyerabend, "Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge"

yeah... that would be amusing! After Erika and Featherine I was thinking that we might get an insert of Akasaka or Ooishi or something. Like you say though there isn't much room for an extra character on the gameboard. That is unless there is a testimony in 1998, or someone like Nanjo were an undercover cop...

EDIT: If he is one though I can just imagine him blowing a whistle every time he cites the Dine rules. Wright is gonna be awesome if this is true!

That is unless there is a testimony in 1998, or someone like Nanjo were an undercover cop...

Actually, there's relatively little evidence that doctor Nanjo really is who he says he is, little enough to let us question it seriously. For a doctor, he is quite inadequate, as has been discussed before. It is not clear how well did anyone not living permanently on the island know him, or for how long, and even if they did meet him before, it's not too hard to mistake someone else for a person you only see once or twice a year for a few hours, especially if you don't consider him particularly important.

The idea has been proposed that Nanjo is actually replaced by his own granddaughter, which is quite ridiculous, but replacing one balding fat old man with another balding fat old man is fairly sound, and creating a role for a balding fat old man to step into out of nothing is only a Kinzo Phantom Conspiracy scale problem, which has been shown to exist.

Reminds me of that story arc in House M.D., where an old man who never received a medical education successfully pretended to be a viable candidate for a position in House's group mostly by the virtue of having observed sufficient medical activity in his otherwise non-medical job.

Unfortunately I don't remember any hints to support the existence of a character that replaces Doctor Nanjo, which is sort of a shame as it would have been a neat plot twist.

P.S.: Why would replacing Nanjo be justified? That's easy enough. A balding fat old man who is willing to pretend to be a doctor convincingly and confirm any deaths or give false reports about Kinzo's health will in many cases be easier to find than a real doctor willing to do the same.

__________________

"The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes."
— Paul K. Feyerabend, "Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge"

Reminds me of that story arc in House M.D., where an old man who never received a medical education successfully pretended to be a viable candidate for a position in House's group mostly by the virtue of having observed sufficient medical activity in his otherwise non-medical job.

Unfortunately I don't remember any hints to support the existence of a character that replaces Doctor Nanjo, which is sort of a shame as it would have been a neat plot twist.

Well not just replacing him, but if it was a twist saying he wasn't really a doctor, but was pretending to be (or used to be, but now is something else) well I think this is the sort of twist doesn't need hints to be added into the plot. You don't really need hints to introduce a plot point as long as it's a plot point that doesn't solve anything in the game. If adding more onto his character could give him an alibi for all the games it'd end up being a hint instead of something that needs hints to be true.

If adding more onto his character could give him an alibi for all the games it'd end up being a hint instead of something that needs hints to be true.

Well, that I can agree with -- but with the things Nanjo seems to be doing, being an undercover cop would push the limits of 'undercover', so if something of the sort happens, he probably is something else.

__________________

"The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes."
— Paul K. Feyerabend, "Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge"

Uh... there is a text code in episode 6 for a character that hasn't appeared yet. At first we thought his name was Light, but then we thought it might be referencing the character in the TIPS named Wizard Hunting Wright (Willard Huntington Wright) which Van Dine would be a pseudonym for.

The script for Ep6 contains code blocks apparently meant to support a new magical or meta character sprite (and TIPS) but no such sprite is actually present. The code blocks are not being used. It is probable that the character was meant to appear in the end of Ep6 like Ange shows up in the end of Ep3 and was cut for time, but nothing has so far been revealed.

Well, there's a Dr. Nanjo in 1998 who claims he had a father who was also a Dr. Nanjo and that his father died on Rokkenjima. Sure, you can call 1998 into question too, but that's a long way to go to set up a lie, especially 12 years later.

Well, there's a Dr. Nanjo in 1998 who claims he had a father who was also a Dr. Nanjo and that his father died on Rokkenjima. Sure, you can call 1998 into question too, but that's a long way to go to set up a lie, especially 12 years later.

There's no question that the junior Nanjo had a father who was also Dr. Nanjo, if only because that's where the junior Nanjo's practice comes from. But relatively little evidence remains that this father is the man who was on Rokkenjima during the conference and was calling himself "Nanjo Terumasa". The real Nanjo could have been swimming with the fishes by then.

There's no good hints to assume this is what in fact happened, but there is still room for the author to mess with it without upsetting much of anything.

__________________

"The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes."
— Paul K. Feyerabend, "Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge"

There's no question that the junior Nanjo had a father who was also Dr. Nanjo, if only because that's where the junior Nanjo's practice comes from. But relatively little evidence remains that this father is the man who was on Rokkenjima during the conference and was calling himself "Nanjo Terumasa". The real Nanjo could have been swimming with the fishes by then.

There's no good hints to assume this is what in fact happened, but there is still room for the author to mess with it without upsetting much of anything.

That wouldn't really square with the "undercover cop" theory though. The police wouldn't actually kill Dr. Nanjo. Now, if he were already dead, that's one thing, but he'd have to die and have his death be covered up in some manner by the police or something. Even in Japan, I can't see them going quite that far.

Now if you want to argue he's some kind of yakuza assassin or something, maybe, but generally the police don't go around killing old men so they can impersonate them.